Thing with Dune Scorps is that their poison tends to be slow and requires a buff to work. Thus, the best way to use them is to combo with something that has stall capabilities... Time has some, but it's rather limited (Rewind/Procrastination), and Time itself has no buffing. When I saw the potential in Deja Vu for carrying a crazy amount of Luminescence abilities via Luciferin, the rest built itself.
One MAJOR weakness of this deck: reactive shields like Fire Buckler, and mass CC spells like Thunderstorm. A single Fire Buckler will cripple you late-game, and totally shut you down if played early. Single-target CC spells are of little avail - with many Luciferines, you can resist Lobotomize easily, and unless your opponent has an Owl's Eye or targets Dejas before they replicate, it's a LOT of targets to kill. As I mentioned, a great advantage in this respect is that when your opponent sees a Deja Vu, he will be reluctant to burn a CC spell on it, preferring to wait for something bigger.
Due to the troublesome nature of Fire Buckler and also Thorn Carapace, if you upped this deck, Unstoppables would be an amazing addition! With Time Towers and Gravity Mark, you will also seem to be a Pharaoh/Scarab deck, causing your opponent to be prepared for the wrong strategy, and possibly even
more reluctant to take potshots at your critters! Note that you cannot give your Dejas momentum between the copy and the Luciferase - this will give them the "momentum" active ability and Luciferase will misfire (I have tested this). You must cast Unstoppable either 1) before replicating, or 2) after using Luciferase. Before replication is best, as you get twice as many creatures with Momentum.
This makes the critter army dangerous in its own right - for every 2
1
, you get 6 momentum damage spread across two creatures! It's also much more difficult to kill - they can survive a Drain Life or Ice Bolt, and if you're facing an opponent who uses Fire, you might be able to grant each pair of Dejas TWO Unstoppables for 4|4 each.
74a 74a 74a 74a 74a 74c 74c 7k2 7k3 7k3 7k3 7k3 7k3 7k3 7k4 7k4 7k4 7k4 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q4 7q4 7q4 7qd 7qd
Deck size hasn't changed, so draws should be only slightly less reliable due to running without Time mark. Note Luciferase still uses random quanta - use this to your advantage if possible by doing other things first. (Example - with one Time Tower, early game you should 1. play Deja Vu, 2. cast Momentum, play another Deja, then WAIT until turn 3 to replicate, THEN use your
for Luciferase!)
I removed the Blessings (redundant buffs, Unstoppable is better) and one Dune Scorp since I don't want to make the deck too heavy, and the critter army is a lot more powerful anyway. Titans are a good option since they run purely off Mark, you can keep using Morning Glory if you prefer it. One Miracle for a lark, since you will probably survive long enough to use it. If you aren't anticipating any dangerous shields or CC spells, feel free to run the critters sans Momentum and get that Light quanta a bit earlier. This is also one deck where upped Hope may in fact be a better choice - your creature army is still fragile, less renewable than the Fractal-RoL variant, and I've usually found that I don't land at exactly 7
anyway - usually at 6 or 8,
especially in a deck that will be Luciferizing creatures nearly always in pairs. I'm very happy with this deck - it is the first truly unique deck concept I've posted since joining the forums.
Very interested in seeing how this does against FGs upped, if someone wants to run tests - I am somewhat preoccupied with other things at the moment!